


in a promise of forever

by lavenderlotion



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Asexual Erik Lehnsherr, Bisexual Charles Xavier, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Erik Lehnsherr Has Feelings, Erik Lehnsherr Needs a Hug, First Kiss, Flirting Over a Chessboard, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Sexuality, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-13 13:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion
Summary: "You need not hide from me, my friend. Not when your numbers are inked upon my skin.”
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 36
Kudos: 182
Collections: Secret Mutant Madness 2019





	in a promise of forever

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [dedkake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedkake/pseuds/dedkake) in the [secret_mutant_madness_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/secret_mutant_madness_2019) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> Soulmate AU where Erik is ace. Can be romantic, platonic, or queerplatonic. (canon compliant or au setting, doesn't matter)

The chessboard sat in front of him, stagnant. The wine in Charles’ glass leaned towards its edge before he straightened his hold on its spine and raised it to his lips. This specific bottle was rather tart, and sat sharply on his tongue as he breathed it in. 

“Enjoying yourself?” Erik asked him with a brow raised and a smirk across his lips. Charles inclined his head and swirled his wine again. With another sip, he let out a soft noise of enjoyment. “You sound as though you’re pleasuring yourself, my friend. Do not think to sway me so easily from my scotch.”

“I can occasionally enjoy a...stiffer drink if the situation calls for it,” Charles defended, and then, in a bid to tease, “I am quite sure you are familiar with such pleasures.”

He only said it because his lips were loose with drink, but he felt something sharp cut across Erik’s mind in response. Charles resisted delving deeper, despite how badly he wanted to. Erik’s mind had called out to him since that first moment he touched it in the water, but, as always, he was mindful of his friend’s hesitancy towards his power. The spike of sudden emotion, however, was enough for him to place his glass down on the table beside his chair. 

“You need not hide from me, my friend. Not when your numbers are inked upon my skin.” 

It was the first time either of them had said a thing about their marks, and it was not intentional. However, Charles knew Erik bore his name with a certainty borne from wearing Erik’s mark. Fate would not be so cruel as to leave him without a match, and he and Erik were so well matched it could be nothing less than the wiles of fortune that brought them together. 

Erik sucked in a sharp gasp that sounded too loud in the silent room. The children were already asleep, and perhaps they both should be as well. Nothing good came during this hour. Still, Charles did not take back his words which hung heavily between them, an acknowledgement they may not have been ready for. 

“Charles...” he trailed off into nothing. Again, something strong and indecipherable disrupted the usual calm and comfortable presence of Erik’s thoughts; but Charles was slow with drink, or perhaps he just did not want to feel what it was, lest it be something akin to disgust. Charles quite blindly said, “Erik, please, there is nothing to fear between us.”

“Get out of my head!” Erik snapped, leaning forward in his chair, knuckles white against the upholstery. 

“I am not in your head,” Charles denied, doing his best to remain calm despite the accusation. It stung all the more for how careful he was being. “You say we should not hide away. You urge Raven to walk in nothing but her natural skin, yet you condemn me for my mutation. _ Nothing _ is not natural for me, Erik. Would you rather have me turn it off? Have me feel as though I have lost a sense just to preserve your peace of mind?”

Silence, acrid in the heavy air, rung out. Charles breathed deeply and snatched at his glass, wine spilling over the side in his anger. He took a long sip before Erik spoke. “I...don’t understand.”

Charles sighed, sinking into the soft cushion under him and running a hand down his face tiredly. He had tried not to let it hurt. Tried to be partial to the things Erik said about the others in the same breath as he condemned Charles. But his mutation, his telepathy, was as much as him as Raven’s blue skin was her. 

“I am a _ telepath, _ Erik. For me to feel _ nothing _ is to feel as though I have lost a sense. I am not within your mind, but I do have a sense of you. It is the natural level for my mutation. I get...feelings, occasionally intentions if they are particularly strong.” Charles twirled his wine again and finished the glass. “Everyone is terrified of what I am able to do. Raven may be blue, but for those who know of my power, _ I _ am the monster they wish to hide from.” He waited for a beat, and then rather derisively added, _ “Mutant and proud, _I thought?”

“So you’re not...” once again Erik trailed off to nothing. Charles let out a tired sigh into the silence and finished his wine. 

“I am not in your head and I do not know anything you didn’t tell me,” Charles confirmed, huffing out a breath of annoyance at Erik’s raised brow. He couldn’t help but soften his voice as he said, “I would hope that by now I know how you think, my friend.” 

Erik sighed heavily, and it was clear there was something weighing on him. Charles let the silence linger as he tried to collect himself. It felt...different now that Charles had voiced what they both knew. The truth was a weighted comfort between them, and Charles felt a smile curl his lips upwards as he watched Erik’s face. 

It was true that Charles was able to read Erik without reading his mind. They had spent many hours together on the road, stuck in such close quarters, it felt inevitable for them to learn one another. Charles was sure the bond they shared made that all the easier, and as he watched Erik’s face he found he did not need to rely on telepathy to know what the other man was feeling. 

“My name is written across your skin,” Charles paused, but no denial came. He felt his smile widen as he said, “I promise, Erik, you never need to hide yourself from me.”

There were several moments of silence before the tension that covered Erik seemed to drain right off him. Charles watched as he sunk back into the seat with a long sigh, some of the heaviness in the room passing with it. The corner of Erik’s mouth twitched with the beginnings of a rather handsome smile, a smile Charles had come to find himself rather fond of. 

“I don’t know where to begin,” Erik admitted, truth written on every line of his face. 

“How about the beginning?”

Erik chuckled, but he lowered his head in acceptance. Charles watched patiently as he took a drink of his scotch. His eyes fluttered closed and he tipped his head back in a way that warmed Charles’ body. He allowed himself a moment to _ look _, a luxury he had not taken before, free now from the worry of being caught. 

“I have never...I do not understand the urge to be with someone so intimately. It might be something else Shaw stole from me but I...others talk about _ wanting, _ and that is something I have never understood.” Erik’s mind was a whirlwind of harsh emotion, growing darker and darker. Charles did not lean away from it like he so wanted. For Erik, he would weather any storm. 

“I have fucked people. I have chased pleasure inside another’s body and brought pleasure to myself. But...I have never craved it. I have never seen someone and wanted to undress them, or to be with them in that way. It’s—well, I am not sure what it is. But that is the truth. I am far more broken than you could possibly know, no matter how much you think you’ve seen.”

“Erik, I...” Charles trailed off into nothing, feeling too slow, as he tried to make sense of Erik’s words. 

“I do not want to fuck you,” Erik said plainly, and the words cut into Charles’ chest deeper than any other words ever had before. 

“And that...” Charles couldn’t keep the worry from his voice. He knew some bonds remained platonic but he...he knew that would not be enough for him, not with Erik. 

“I want to be close to you, Charles. I want to feel the warmth of your skin against my own. I want to know you as I’ve never known anyone else, and I want you to know me just the same. But I don’t look at you and want to fuck you. Now that you know how little I have to give you, am I still what you want?”

“I am incredibly attracted to you,” Charles said simply. He tried to pull his thoughts together into something that made sense, but found it rather difficult. He could at least be honest. “From the first moment I saw you, I have been attracted to you physically as well as sexually. Erik, you are a gorgeous man.”

“As are you, Charles,” Erik told him seriously when Charles’ words ran out. “Please do not believe that I think of you as anything other than beautiful.”

Charles was silent for a time. He couldn’t imagine what it was Erik was trying to tell him, not when _ he _ was so attracted to Erik. He saw Erik and he wanted to do terrible, _ perverted _things to him. This was not the first time Charles had thought of men before—he had long since accepted that he was as fond of men as he was of women—but he had never been so attracted to a man that he would risk his reputation pursuing them. 

With Erik...Charles could not imagine a world in which he did _ not _ pursue him. When it came to Erik, Charles cared not for the opinion of the Law or the Church. Perhaps it was because he didn’t just fancy taking Erik to bed. Perhaps it was because he was in _ love _ with Erik that the opinion of no other mattered, and perhaps...it was the truth of Erik’s number inked into his skin. 

For Erik, Charles knew he would do anything. If Charles never found pleasure in another again—it would be no loss if he got Erik’s love. 

“There are other ways that we can be close, my friend,” Charles said. “I do not need to find release with you, if that is something you do not want. I...to know that we are together, to...know that you love me—there is nothing more I could ever want, and I would go to sleep each night with a smile, for I know I would have your heart, even if I do not get your body.”

“You can have all of me that you want, Charles.” Erik’s words sounded like an oath, a promise that would never be broken for how intent Erik was to keep it. In contrast, his voice was rather weak as he said, “No matter what you say, I am not someone you should want as a soulmate, Charles. There is not much left of my soul to give.”

“Let me be the judge of that, my friend.” Charles kept his voice stern, and to be sure Erik believed him he projected his certainty to Erik’s mind. The other man sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes went wide, and Charles pushed himself onto unsteady feet. 

It took only a few steps to round the low table that held their long-forgotten game. Erik was reclined back in his armchair in such a way that it looked rather indecent, though now Charles knew he did not mean it to be such. It was with a rather sly grin that he made room for his knee between Erik’s thigh and the arm of the chair, and it was with a smile that he climbed onto the chair and settled himself atop Erik’s lap. 

His thighs made a rather great seat, and Charles settled himself with a pleased noise. Erik grabbed his hips, and his fingers were so very warm as they slipped under his layers. His hands did not displace his shirts any further, but not for a second did Charles think to keep himself covered.

With their eyes locked together, Charles pushed up Erik’s left sleeve to reveal his own name against his skin. He swept his thumb over the smooth skin and shivered at the pleasure that lit Erik up at the simple gesture. His smile widened as the skin around Erik’s eyes crinkled, and he wasted not another moment before he pushed up his sleeve to reveal his own mark, a stark _ 241782 _against his skin. 

Charles was unable to stop a shiver from racing down his spine as Erik rubbed a calloused thumb over the numbers, and he swayed forward as though he were being drawn in by an unstoppable force. Without Erik’s eyes to drown in, Charles found himself lost in the soft upwards curve of Erik’s mouth; a smile that was gentler than anything Charles had seen on his face before. 

“You are my soulmate,” Erik whispered, and when he looked back up there was a sheen of wetness over his eyes and so much joy in his heart Charles could not help but be rocked by it. He used the momentum to carry him forward until he could feel Erik’s breath against his lips, and he let his eyes fall closed so he could focus on the way their souls bled together. 

“If fate had not put your mark on my skin, I would carve it there myself. Erik, I love you,” Charles told him, and then he pressed the sentiment against Erik’s lips in his own promise of forever. 

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are much appreciated!


End file.
